1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to automatic banknote-dispensing equipment for use in providing paper money to a user. More particularly, the present invention relates to such a dispenser used as an autoteller, in particular outside normal banking hours and providing a service in the absence of banking staff. In greatest particularity, the present invention relates to tamperproof paper money cassettes for use in a banknote dispenser which can be changed by persons other than employees of the bank and which provide a measure of protection against interference with the contents.
2. The Prior Art
Autoteller systems are available for use by bank customers outside normal banking hours. Access is provided to the equipment at some point external to the bank and money, generally paper money, is provided to the user upon presentation to the autoteller of a valid user card and the further provision to the autoteller via a keyboard of further, secret information known only to the true owner of the card validating his or her right to its use.
Such use of autotellers has become extensive, and it has reached a point where, for some banks, most transactions with normal, domestic account holders are carried out via such equipment. The availability of access to the bank at all hours of the day has resulted in an improved service.
An autoteller can only function so long as it contains sufficient money to meet the demands of the users. The autoteller is loaded by the bank staff with a sum of money anticipated to be at least as large as the total required by the customers up to the next convenient time of loading. However, statistical variations in demand, together with other factors such as bank holidays and unusually high demand at certain times of the year such as Christmas and the time of the annual summer vacation, mean that it is not always possible to load the autoteller with enough money to maintain it in operation until the next loading time.
Accordingly, it is a desirable feature of an autoteller system that it can be loaded with money outside banking hours by persons other than employees of the bank.
In order to load an autoteller in such a manner it is necessary to provide an exchangeable banknote cassette which can be filled with money by bank staff during normal banking hours and entrusted, for example, to a security company, for one of the security company's operatives to change with the exhausted or part-exhausted cassette in the autoteller at some predetermined time or whenever the autoteller ceases to operate due to lack of funds.
There is a certain amount of risk entailed in such a system. The security company operative might not have the same level of skill and experience with the autoteller as the normal bank staff and accordingly might load a cassette filled with banknotes of one denomination into a position intended for a cassette loaded with banknotes of another denomination. If this should occur, either the customers will receive too little money and be dissatisfied with the service of the bank or the autoteller will pay out more than the amount demanded and accounted for to the ultimate financial loss of the bank. It is therefore a desirable feature of a cassette that it cannot be loaded into the wrong position in an autoteller.
Another risk arises from the security personnel themselves. A cassette full of money is an obvious temptation and it would be all too easy for a security company operative of fraudulent intent, not subject to the large amount of scrutiny experienced by banking staff during their working day, to remove some or all of the contents of the cassette with the possibility of blaming any subsequently discovered loss upon a malfunction of the autoteller.
It is therefore desirable to provide a cassette which cannot be opened other than at the autoteller itself and which will provide no access to the money even when so opened, so far as the person loading the cassette into the autoteller is concerned.
As earlier stated, sometimes the security company operative can be required to change a part-full cassette for a new one. The same argument applies to the part-full cassette as applies to the fresh cassette. It is therefore desirable that a cassette be provided wherein access is denied to the residual contents thereof subsequently to its removal from the autoteller.
One operative may be required to exchange the cassettes in many different autotellers. For the maintenance of correct accounting procedures and for the prevention of possible fraud it is desirable to provide a cassette which cannot be swapped around between autotellers and which cannot repeatedly be used.